Davis Cup Yearbook 2002 : The Year in Tennis Book

The year that began with Lleyton Hewitt suffering from the chicken pox and watching Australia lose at the opening World Group hurdle, ended with the first final to be decided by a player coming from two sets to love down to win the fifth rubber. Mikhail Youzhny said that he did not know what his emotions were but everyone else in Paris did. In between, spread far and wide across the globe, were stories of heroism and denial that make the Davis Cup the most successful annual team competition in this mesmerizing world of tennis. A defeat on grass for Pete Sampras in the USA's quarterfinal victory over Spain, a 19-17 fifth set in the doubles in the semifinal between Russia and Argentina, and Roger Federer's astouding individual performances on clay in Morocco were the stuff of legend.

There was all of this and much more. One hundred and twenty years after the very first tie played between the United States and the British Isles, the vitality, passion, and drama of the event that now involves almost every nation in the civilized world, showed no sign of abating.

This book, written by Neil Harman, the tennis correspondent of the Times, is an expanded, attentive examination of the matches and personalities that defined this historic year. With much of its material gleaned from Harman's own interviews, it provides a unique perspective on the event that has survived intact for more than a century because of the indomitable nature of the human spirit.